Las Vegas to Dallas/Fort Worth

We need some sightseeing ideas!!! My boyfriend and I will be flying to Vegas in late April for a friend's wedding. We are then planning to rent a car and drive back home to Texas. We will not be in a hurry to get home and we love to travel off the beaten path. Also, neither of us has spent a great deal of time in the SW USA and we are up for anything. My first idea was to see the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam and then make our way home along Route 66. If anyone reading this has other recommendations - I would love to hear them.

Where in Texas?

It will make a huge difference in what people might suggest, depending on where in Texas you plan to end up. There are places I'd suggest if you're headed to Dallas that would not be at all on your way if you're going to San Antonio.

Suggest it anyway!

We will be ending our trip in the Dallas/Fort Worth area since that is were we live. Go ahead and make your suggestion anyway. There is no reason for us to stick to traveling through North Texas just because that is were we need to end up. We won't be in a hurry to get home and could very well decide to drive a more southern route and then head north. Or vice versa. If there is something really great to see by heading toward San Antonio then we just might do that. We don't want to drive too far out of the way, but as long as it doesn't require too much backtracking, than we would love to hear it.

DFW - Of Course!

Oops, Sorry, next time I'll take a closer look at the title!

Anyway, since you have said to suggest away, and the Editor has proffered his tip of Big Bend, and my predilection is for the southern deserts, here are some great stops on the way from the Grand Canyon to Big Bend. Start by coming down Oak Creek Canyon (AZ-89A) from Flagstaff to Sedona and enjoy the Red Rock country thereabouts. If you want to do any hiking in this area, stop at one of the visitor's centers and get a Red Rock Pass. You'll need it to park at the trailheads. Then I'd suggest that you bypass Phoenix on some great backroads. See Tuzigoot National Monument outside Cottonwood, and then take AZ-260, to Payson, AZ-87, AZ-188, and AZ-88 to Globe and finally AZ-77 to Tucson and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Saguaro National Park. Leave Tucson on I-10, making a stop at Kartchner Caverns State Park, and may be a side trip or two to Tombstone or Fort Bowie National Historic Site. Once in New Mexico, and before you head down to Big Bend, make one last detour to White Sands National Monument. Finally, if you do finally decide to see more than a couple of the national parks and monuments that have been suggested, be sure to get a National Parks Pass either before you leave or at the first park you visit. And have a great trip.

One version of this trip I've wanted to make, but never had the time or opportunity would be to

- go East out of Grand Canyon village along the south rim (done that)

- cut NE through Tuba City to Monument Valley and 4 Corners

- hook back SE to Santa Fe, NM

- South through Albuquerque and along the Rio Grande River Valley to Sirocco to White Sands

- South to Texas via Carlsbad Caverns

Bad part about this trip is that it doesn't give you Sedona or Oak Creek Canyon, nor does it take the southerly route through Tucson.

There's a slight alternative (depending upon time) to go south after you get out of the Grand Canyon to Flagstaff, and then turn East on old R-66 (now I-40). That takes you past Wupaki, Sunset Crater Volcanic Monument, Meteor Crater, Petrified Forest, and east through Gallup to Albuquerque.

Last time I did that route, we went from Williams, along the south rim, through Wupatki/ Sunset Crater to Holbrook in a day's travel.